Nothing is Forever Read Free Page A

flies.’
    Trying not to show her relief, Ruth agreed. For those few days the house wouldn’t be completely empty. Looking forward to that would help in the days until then. But even so, the absence of her twin brothers and their wives would make her feel abandoned.
    Guessing her thoughts, Blodwen said, ‘Don’t worry, Ruth love. They’ll be in and out so much you won’t realize they’ve gone.’
    ‘It went well considering I had so little time to arrange it, didn’t it?’ Ruth said. ‘It’s a pity they couldn’t have waited till food rationing had ended, mind. We could have had a big-huge spread then. It can’t be more than a few more months. Imagine that, Aunty Blod, going into a shop and asking for a whole pound of butter after managing on two ounces a week for so long.’
    Aunty Blodwen looked thoughtful. ‘1954, almost nine years after the end of the war and we’re still rationed. I’m dreaming of buying a big-huge steak and eating the lot. But I doubt if I will, our stomachs must have shrunk after all these years.’
    ‘I suppose they couldn’t have waited,’ Ruth mused. ‘Tommy and Bryn are never happy apart, and a delay before the wedding might have lost them that flat. I wish they could have given me a bit more notice though.’
    ‘Sudden it was, and no mistake, and you were amazing, Ruth, darlin’, producing this spread. Strange it was such a rush job, mind,’ she added thoughtfully.
    ‘It was the flat. Once Tommy saw that place, right next to the one taken by Bryn and Brenda, there was nothing else to consider. You know what they’re like for being together, living together, working together and never a cross word.’
    ‘Just the flat? Yes,’ Blodwen said thoughtfully. ‘That’s why there was the rush, sure to be. But it had been empty for a while, mind. Perhaps there’s something we don’t know about.’
    ‘What d’you mean? We don’t have secrets.’
    Blodwen’s face wrinkled in a comical frown. ‘I think it’s what Churchill said about Russia, “A riddle, wrapped up in a mystery inside a – whatsit.’
    ‘An enigma.’ Ruth finished for her. ‘What do you mean, Aunty? Where’s the mystery? They hate being separated, always have done since they were born.’
    ‘Yes, it was just the flat, you’re probably right.’
    ‘All the brothers married now and I feel abandoned,’ Ruth sighed, stacking the returned plates ready for washing. She smiled at the word, hoping it sounded like a joke. She was hardly abandoned, but that was how it would feel. After all the years of having the large family bounding through its rooms and narrow corridors the silence would be almost threatening. She pushed away the over-dramatic words and concentrated on filling more plates that were still being taken into the living-room.
    Tommy stopped before picking up the plateful of sandwiches she had just prepared and gave her a hug.
    ‘Thanks, Sis. You’ve been wonderful and made this a very happy day.’
    ‘The first of many I hope,’ she replied, forcing the smile back on her face.
    She wasn’t the only one facing changes. Tommy and Bryn and their wives were starting a new kind of life as different for them as her own would be and she guessed they, too, were apprehensive, especially Tommy’s Toni and Bryn’s wife, Brenda. The changes were greater for women: living here with her running the home, coming in from work to a tidy house with a meal waiting, the laundry done; then suddenly having to face it all themselves.
    Men didn’t feel it as much as women. The men would come home from work and everything would be the same apart from their wives dealing things instead of their mother, or, she reminded herself, in this case, their sister. The newly wed wives hadn’t managed housekeeping budgets before, or had to plan meals on a small ration for two. Beds didn’t make themselves and washing had to be dried and ironed and put away. No, the changes for Toni and Brenda would be harder than those